KOLOR
IMPRESSIONIST
EQUALIZERS
Early access pricing ends on July 31st. The price will then rise to 129 GBP (ex VAT).
A MODULAR VINTAGE EQUALIZER PLAYGROUND
NEW
Kolor is a cutting-edge EQ plugin, designed to add much needed colour to your digital mixes. Discover a stunning suite of ultra-rare vintage equalizers, presented as an easy-to-use modular equalizer playground. Mix and match different devices to find unique combinations that fit your style - and the track - best. Add texture and vibe to your tracks. Find a sound that’s uniquely yours.
overview
Enjoy lush highs, huge bass, and sparkling presence - all of which you just want to keep boosting. Arrive at satisfying results fast, thanks to the uber-musical broad-stroke design. Sweat less. Smile more. Enjoy a cup of coffee while the song mixes itself. Well, not really. But this plugin makes every mix fun again.
What equalizers made in the post-war Europe have in common? The design philosophy. They all provide wide, musical shelves, sometimes complemented by additional semi-parametric mid bands or tilts. Some are considered iconic. Others remain the hidden gems: made in low quantities for national broadcast industries, ignored by internet hype, uknown to most. Kolor is my love letter to these devices.
the story
At the heart of the plugin lie four shelving equalizers, selected for their vibrant vintage flavour and complimented by a wide range of complimentary modules: tilts, presence bands, a graphic EQ and filters - all meticulously captured from hardware so rare you didn’t know it even existed.
Together with five stunning AI-modeled vintage preamp sections, you get a signal chain you’ll use whenever you want a bit of that analog fairy dust. Which, to me, is pretty much all the time.
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Quickly adjust the character of the track with utlra-musical shelving EQ.
INTERFACE
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Click on the band's label to change the module.
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Push the preamp into authentic saturation of the iconinc 1950s-1960s preamps.
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Top and bottom bands got too big? Keep them under control with filters!
THE BROAD STROKES:
TOP AND BOTTOM SHELVES
An ultra-rare LIE Belin tube equalizer, created for French radio. Bold, lively, and characterful. The shelves can be switched between two different center frequencies - each with their own unique character.
A one-of-a-kind equalizer, custom-made by a forgotten manufacturer FODU for an iconic Polish animation studio. Most likely, the only one of the 61 made that survived. Clearly inspired by the Klangfilm mastering equalizers, but with a personality of its own. Lush, sweet, and warm. Each band comes with three frequency settings, which bend the curves beautifully.
A passive shelving equalizer crafted for the Swedish broadcast industry. Ultra-open highs, tight bass, and all the ‘oomph’ you need. I prefer its shelves to the Klangfilm RZ062b, which contributed the tilt band to this plugin. To me, that’s the very essence of a hidden gem - sounds stunning, yet nobody sings its praise.
Completely overbuilt using the best components available, this device was made by a Soviet manufacturer, KINAP, for a high-profile recording studio working on sound for movies. Less than 40 were made. The film industry was big in the USSR, and so is this EQ - the coils and transformers are larger than an adult’s head, and the tone is here to match.
You can mix and match shelves from individual equalizers. Like the boom end of the French EQ, but prefer the top from the Swedish unit? No problem! Simply click on a label under a knob and choose a module according to your preference. Module combinations can be saved as custom presets for easy recall.
MIX FINESSE: MIDS, PRESENCE, TILT and filters
The tilt section was sampled from the inconic Klangfilm RZ062b mastering equalizer. Quickly change the tonal balance of a track with a single turn of a knob. Many mixes end with this control - find the right balance using the shelves, then fine-tune with tilt.
The mid band of the KINAP EQ has a unique character - turning it left boosts lower mid frequencies, and turning it right provides an equivalent applied to the top frequencies. Combine this with shelves from the main modules to cut and boost at a similar frequency, Pultec-style.
The boost-only presence section of the Tonographie Apparatebau W95c equalizer allows you to add some 3D vibrancy to your tracks. Unlike a digital EQ, which can quickly get harsh in the mids, this one sounds great, no matter how far you push it.
A French graphic equalizer, crafted by the boutique manufacturer Picot back in the 1950s. Arguably the least realistic sounding of devices included in Kolor, but that’s also what makes it so nice - it just oozes character.
High and low cut filters allow you to keep the frequency extremes under control. Boost with one of the main modules, and then cut with the filter section to experience unusual frequency curves and natural resonant boosts of the filters.
Just like on the hardware, the frequency numbers on the filters correspond the point at which the filter reaches the maximum cut, and not where it starts.
The filters introduce a resonant peak, which is highly musical. For example, boosting the bottom and lot, and cutting the lows at 40 Hz gives you a stunningly focused and hard-hitting bass.
TUBES? TRANSFORMERS? SATURATION? yes.
Kolor comes with 5 ultra-detailed preamp models, cherry-picked from sampled equalizers, and modeled using cutting-edge machine learning technology. Experience euphonic analogue tone and lively harmonics, stunningly captured from some of the rarest and most beautiful hardware devices crafted in the 1950s and 60s.
TIMELESS ANALOG TONE
A common misconception is that vintage devices sound old. That couldn’t be further from the truth. They sound timeless in the most classy and effortless way possible. Bypass the preamp section to achieve cleaner sound and save CPU resources for other tasks. It sounds so good, though, that you might leave it on most of the time.
YOUR SOUND. in no time.
Getting the sound that's recognizably yours isn't only about the tools you use. But the tools have a profound impact on your journey, the results you arrive at, and how fast you can get there. And it’s not just about the sound - if you’ve ever spent hours tweaking a high-precision digital EQ, working with Kolor will feel like a breath of fresh air.
Just like the original hardware devices that inspired it, Kolor is designed around a philosophy of using your ears instead of your eyes. Fewer choices mean faster decision-making. And the great tone will make that process even faster. Most tracks will benefit just by having Kolor on. Adjusting the controls will just make them shine more.
HOW TO APPROACH IT
Reach for the Top and Bottom knobs to quickly find a tonal balance that feels just right. Still not satisfied? Explore the middle modules to find a sound that you like. Yes, mixing can be that simple!
Chances are, you’ve already done mixing this track now. If it needs more love, engage the filters to carve what’s needed on the extreme ends of the spectrum, and enjoy extra space left for other tracks. The filters are sampled in-situ, which means they will sound different based on the module configuration you’ve selected.
Explore different hardware colours by experimenting with module combinations. And when the digital is too clean for you - authentic analogue saturation is just a knob turn away. As is plain filth. You’ll find the sweet spot for sure.
Click the + sign at the top right to access the dry/wet mix control for parallel processing, or add a little noise sampled from the real hardware to inject some much needed life into the digital realm.
TRY IT OUT
Download the free trial and experience Kolor at your own studio.
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Windows (10 or newer) and Mac (10.11 or newer). 8GB of RAM and an i5 or better CPU required. 64-bit only.
The plugin works in every major DAW that supports VST3, Audio Unit or AAX plugins, like Ableton Live 10 or newer, Logic, Pro Tools, Cubase, FL Studio, Studio One, Reason 12, Reaper etc.
Due to the incredible sound, a modern CPU is recommended - especially if you intend to use multiple plugin instances without freezing your tracks.
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With great power comes great responsibility. Due to its cutting-edge sound (no pun intended!), the plugin is CPU intensive. Intelligent optimizatations reduce the processor strain after you’ve set the EQ knobs. If you intend to use the saturation model and/or multiple instances, you might need to freeze some tracks. Download the demo to try it out before committing to a purchase.
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By popular demand, plugin parameters are allowed to be accessed by your DAW, so that you can use Kolor with your favourite knobs / faders / controller. That’s the only reason for this - these parameters are not meant to be automated.
Input gain is empirically compensated for you - this means it was measured by ear on variatey of sources, but on some sounds, it may not be perfect. The reason for that is that while your traditional algorithmic simply generates a series of harmonics based on a specified formula, Kolor behaves like real hardware - the preamps are not just about saturation, but also dynamics and subtle compression. Using automated processes to compensate for the gain loss defies the point of modeling the preamp in such a detail. I know it’s a compromise, but I believe the sonics are worth a little fader adjustment, here or there.
The plugin supports sample rates up to 96K. If your DAW gives you an option to force oversampling on a plugin, DON’T use it on Kolor as it messes with the sample rate detection engine, and will result in some funky response.
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Kolor was designed as a mixing plugin, offering a strong, vintage flavor to your tracks. That being said, there's nothing stopping you from using it on your master bus. This will be especially beneficial if most of the production and mixing process is handled digitally. Some preamp models offer a stronger colour, while others are more subtle.
Kolor encourages experimentation and a sound-first mixing approach. Try different device combinations to discover what sounds best for you!
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This plugin uses cutting-edge machine learning to accurately recreate the saturation characteristics of sampled devices. The AI model comes completely pre-trained and will never use your music for training, analysis, copying your style or other evil business. This pugin is here to help you sound better. Period.
The training was performed using a custom technique centered around a selection of test tones, custom-recorded for this purpose. Felt Instruments will never use your music for training purposes.
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Kolor is using intelligent auto-oversampling technology to make sure you’re always processing your signal at the best quality.
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Sorry! I believe that cutting trees to make a plugin isn’t that good of an idea.
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There are no sales at Felt because I don’t think they’re fair to people who got the plugins earlier on. And those are the people who I want to support the most, which is why I offer loyalty pricing.
In a nutshell, purchasing the plugins gives you access to bundle upgrades and sweet discounts on new releases.
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I offer a 25% edu discount on individual products to students and educators. The discount will be valid for a year since it’s issued and will not work on the bundles as they’re already discounted. If you’re interested in edu pricing, please, send me a copy of your Student or Staff ID or a different proof of your enrolment and I’ll set you up.
Please, allow a few days for a response - Felt is a one-man company and support needs to get the priority treatment.